Monthly Archive: December 2015

My web server is being wooed by a cult.

I was making some changes on a web server that necessitated restarting the process, which I did. As per normal, I went and tailed the logs to make sure everything was coming back up all hunky dory.

Now, you all know me. I accept a wide variety of events as being normal.

This… this was not normal. (more…)

Knitting lessons for December 27th.

Today, in the world of knitting, I was reminded of one thing, and learned one thing.

I was reminded that the intersection of “knitting I actually care about” and “knitting I can work on while watching a movie in a theater” should be a null set. (I didn’t make any uncorrectable mistakes, but Mistakes Were Made™.)

I learned that trying to look at ones knitting whilst wearing 3D glasses is a good way to get a headache. I do not know if this was made better or worse by my yarn being a shade of red, but I did rather quickly stop trying to look at the project. Come to think of it, this may have contributed to the aforementioned mistakes.

Bonus hint: If you do take your knitting to the movies, make sure it’s on a circular needle. If you drop a straight or DPN, you will likely not be able to find it until after the lights come back up. This leaves you sans knitting for the remainder of the movie. Also, consider your average movie theater floor (especially the areas under the seats). Now imagine your needle after it’s been rolling around in that environment for a while. Ew.

On sleep (or lack thereof), and cats, and the intersection of same.

Those of you who were following along with my flurry of updates and comments on facebook last night know that I was having a great deal of difficulty finding my way to sleep. This was particularly annoying as it was the third1 night running that this was a problem. My body doesn’t have much in the way of reserves to draw upon, and it really needs to be able to recharge through sleep. Often more than once per day. Any significant drop in the aggregate amount of sleep I get in a 24 hour period generally leads to an abrupt and overwhelming system shutdown, where my body overrides my brain and takes charge of the situation.2 These forced periods of near convalescence always occur at the most inconvenient times, and are generally a big drag. (more…)

Call for Help (Worldwide & Boston area): Can you help my friend?

TL; DR: My friend Stephanie’s (more local-to-her) friends urgently need help moving Stephanie’s belongings out of her Medford (Boston, MA) apartment by the end of the year (December 31, 2015, in case this gets picked up by some crazy hibernation / resurrection cycle). Assistance in the form of actual bodies-on-site is going to be vital in order to get this done on time. Financial contributions to help defray associated costs are also welcome. More details are included below.  If you want more information, let me know, and I’ll put you in touch with the appropriate person or persons. If you aren’t able to assist, but know someone (or multiple someones) who might be interested, feel free to share this post. (The blog post is obviously public, but the crossposts to facebook and LiveJournal are as well.) (more…)

PSA: For my knitting (and crocheting) peeps: Interweave / Knitting Daily $5 sale.

Really, the subject just about says it all, but in case you require more detail: Interweave Knits / Knitting Daily is having a “5-Star1 Products2 for $5″ sale. At the time of this writing, there are 32 items on sale for $5.

Free Tip #1

Be sure to check what format you’re actually getting things in! The sale includes eBooks; printed books (paperback and hardcover); magazines; VHS (!) and DVD content, downloadable video content, and I’m sure I’ve missed some other way things are being distributed. I adore the digital editions, but some people hate them. Some features I find alluring for the digital editions include, “not having to find a place to store another physical thing,” “not tripping on another physical thing for which I did not find a storage space,” “I can carry ALL THE BOOKS on my laptop,” and “not having to pay for shipping.” But, whatever floats your boat.

Free Tip #2

Before buying something about which you’re not certain, I recommend double-checking the item’s reviews elsewhere online (I used Amazon, but see above, re: your boat). In addition to some more reviews, you might be able to find additional (or even any, depending on the item) images of what’s inside the covers.

Footnotes